Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Optimization Of Neurite Tracing And Further Characterization Of Human Monocyte-Derived-Neuronal-Like Cells, Alfredo Bellon, Tuna Hasoglu, Mallory Peterson, Katherine Gao, Michael Chen, Elisabeta Blandin, Alonso Cortez-Resendiz, Gary Clawson, Liyi Elliot Hong

Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Faculty Papers

Deficits in neuronal structure are consistently associated with neurodevelopmental illnesses such as autism and schizophrenia. Nonetheless, the inability to access neurons from clinical patients has limited the study of early neurostructural changes directly in patients’ cells. This obstacle has been circumvented by differentiating stem cells into neurons, although the most used methodologies are time consuming. Therefore, we recently developed a relatively rapid (~20 days) protocol for transdifferentiating human circulating monocytes into neuronal-like cells. These monocyte-derived-neuronal-like cells (MDNCs) express several genes and proteins considered neuronal markers, such as MAP-2 and PSD-95. In addition, these cells conduct electrical activity. We have also …